Chip is out and lost and scared

SUMMARY: Effing illegal fireworks.

He was OK when I was out Tuesday evening. I didn't think I needed to worry about the evening of the 3rd, and I was planning on being here on the 4th.

He's gone. Tore up his feet and/or mouth trying to get out, and my doorframe and metal miniblinds (most likely the source of all of his bloody footprints).

I got home at 10 and then went out looking for him. Also posted on the Next Door neighborhood list and craigslist. At about 1:30, after making a flyer, I saw an email that said that someone had seen a scared, lost-looking big white dog down by the VTA/chynoweth station. That's well over a mile from here.

I went back out and can you believe it two of my neighbors have been out looking, too--the ones who saw him in their car and another who saw our messages online.

No sign of him. My back is in agony and starting to spasm--more meds are in order.

Will try to get some sleep and decide what to do next in the morning. Hoping that someone just calls me; he does have my phone numbers on his collar. He's also microchipped but silly me I'd been meaning to getting around to finalizing that I'm Chip's new owner with his previous owner, but didn't. His previous owner's phone # on the microchip registration is no longer in service, and there are no alternatives given. I did call the registry and send in a transfer per their instructions tonight, but who knows whether it'll get updated or not.

Not Enough Toys -- The Best Toy of All

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Clicker Training

SUMMARY: So much to learn, so many dogs, so little time.

I taught Tika and Boost to stretch on command (and Boost her back legs, too), at least more or less, by following Susan Garrett's suggestion to have a clicker and treats right after you get up while you're sitting on the -- throne. Yes. Because dogs will get up off their beds and come in and stretch. What a great time to catch them doing that.

So every morning they get the commands for that while I'm there to practice, except Tika stopped wanting to several months ago, so then it was mostly Boost.

To keep things hopping, so that that's not the only thing that Boost does while we're there, I mix it up with nose touches, hand shakes, left and right. And I keep saying, Boost, I should teach you more tricks.

Now I have Chip. Chip is cheating me because he comes in to see what's going on, then goes back out into the bedroom and around the corner and I can just barely see one of his leg when he stretches. Meanwhile Boost is right in front of me, staring at me, so she'll think that any click and treat is for her.  It will be challenging to teach Chip to stretch on command.

But he has figured out that treats are being handed out, so he comes in and wants in on the action. But all he knows is a wimpy nose touch. Which gets boring. So I need to teach *him* more tricks.

Next, I'm dogsitting my sister's dog, Abby. Abby likes to greet you at any time with something in her mouth. Her most favoritest thing is socks, but anything else will suffice if the mean humans have hidden all the socks.

Me find stick!

So now *she* comes in in the morning where treats are being handed out and wants some, too. She knows "sit". But that gets boring really fast. So I decided to teach her a nose touch to the back of my hand. She seemed to get it right away. I'm experimenting with doing it in different places in the house to see whether it's really a thing or whether she's just hoping that there's food in the hand. Have worked on that for a minute or so a couple of times a day for the last 4 days.

She also hates having her paws touched or held. So I started working on that with a clicker and tasty treats, just touch her paw and click really fast before she moves it and treat. Over and over and over. I was able to touch longer and with more pressure, but always on the top of her foot. As soon as I started trying to touch the sides, it was harder because she always moved right away.

[Note about training sessions: If I have time, I do multiple passes with each dog. So, 10 treats worth of work with Tika, then with Boost, then with Chip, then back around again. For the moment, Abby is in the mix, too. This gives the dogs' brains a chance to relax and not stress out between times.  If things seem to be going well and no signs of stress, or if I need a lot of rewards in a very short period, I'll do more than 10 treats worth, maybe 20 or 30. When desensitizing Chip to the flap of the dog door, I just stood there for 5 minutes or so with a hot dog in my hand and flapped flapped flapped over and over while he just licked at the hot dog and got tiny nibbles of it. That process wouldn't have worked, I don't think, 10 treats at a time.]

So back to Chip, I decided to teach him Shake, since he doesn't yet. Have had three sessions during which I worked on shaping that (holding a treat with my thumb in my open palm, waiting for him to move a paw, then move it more, then touch my hand, etc.) with the clicker. He's starting to get it--much less time licking and much quicker to lift his paw to my hand now.

Only thing is that he much prefers his left paw than his right paw. I did teach Tika different commands and cues for left and right shake, apparently I need to do the same with him. Thinking about that, or whether it's better to find ways to make it easier for him to use his right paw first. Training tricks is so easy and yet there are so many decisions!

Then it occurred to me that maybe learning "Shake" was a better way to teach Abby to let someone hold her paw. So yesterday morning I switched to that. She was much quicker to use her paw to begin with, so after a couple of sessions, she's also already lifting her paw to my hand--but she does it at the same time as she's rooting firmly into my hand with her nose. Trying to not let her get her nose on my hand before her paw gets there now. Tricky. Have to be persistent at keeping my hand away from her nose without her getting frustrated and stop trying before she uses her paw. I think I can manage that OK.

I have probably this morning and this evening for a couple more sessions of working on that before she goes home; will see how far I get.

Meanwhile, back to Boost. Decided to work on her walking backwards. Never did solidify that thing. Making progress. She also by default wants to try to lift her back legs onto something, because I've put so many sessions into the work for her to do a handstand. But she's getting over that.

And Tika wants in on it, too. I'm trying to get her to sit up and other things to strengthen her core, but her back end is pretty weak these days. I should do this a couple of times a day every day, but just never feel like I have the time. So mostly we just do the good old tricks, anything to get her moving in tight circles or backing up.

All of this is good to give all the dogs practice at lying down and waiting their turns. Some dogs aren't quite as cooperative about this...right, CHIP??

This is also challenging when my back is killing me, which it has been doing excessively the last few days. Sucks. Working with the doctors to figure out what next.

But dogs are enjoying their treats and the attention. That's the important thing.

Graduation animated GIF

SUMMARY: Because I can...

...and because facebook won't display it animated. Bah.

Chip Training Update

SUMMARY: Wobble board, nose touch, fireworks and heat, fence barking.

We started a Foundations class last week and it's good practice for him to wait quietly in his crate (except when he periodically barked challenges at the silhouette of a dachshund lawn ornament on a nearby wall--he did something similar at a dog park with painted pictures of dogs outside the fence). Also good for me to be more focused on training.

This last week not so much for focusing; up to Portland for 2 days then another day full of graduations then a long work day and an evening out, so we practiced mostly just Saturday and Sunday.

WOBBLE BOARD/TEETER

Last week's issue: The wobble board.  Fairly early on with him, I shortened one leg of the Table (by about maybe 2 inches), played tug with Tika on it and with Boost on it for him to watch, then got him playing tug on the ground and convinced him to jump up and continue there. Other than a short period of concern, he then relaxed and paid the movement no more mind. So I figured I was OK.

Introduce the class teeter with about a 6" drop at one end to play the Bang Game (reward the dog when he makes the teeter end bang down), and he stepped on it, it moved, and he was done with that. So then: Introduce the class Wobble Board with a 10" drop and supported only in the middle rather than along one axis (like my table or the teeter) , and after putting his feet on and it moved like crazy, he'd have nothing to do with it.

The instructor loaned me a wobble board to bring home. Trying to get him to decide to get on the board and shape that behavior (reward for looking at it, then for moving towards it, then for a foot touch, etc, but in very small increments). After 3 days, all we had achieved was two feet on the side that's in touch with the ground. Slightest movement, and he was outa there. I propped it up some so that the drop wasn't nearly the full 10", but no go.

Boost and Tika, that's a different matter. Could hardly keep them off it, even though Tika's back legs are pretty week these days and she kept losing her footing, falling, getting back up, trying again, very excited. Boost also excited about it: Jeez, really good chicken treats just for standing on a wobbly board!  (Neither Jake nor Remington had issues about things moving under them, either--Rem used to leap onto the patio glider to get a better view of the squirrels, and that thing leaped all over the place.)

Anyway, Chip would even jump back if the board moved because the other dogs or I moved it, and Doh! it took me until today to remember how long it took to desensitize him to the motion & noise of the dog door flap:

• Chip Day 5 (including dog door training)
• Chip Day 6 (including doggie door training)
• http://dogblog.finchester.org/2014/04/dog-door-success.html

So this morning I did a ton of Human-Mom-Bangs-Wobble-Board with him standing near it and getting a treat every time I banged it.  Did that for a total of maybe 5 minutes until he wasn't jerking every time it hit.  THEN within a few minutes more, he was getting his front feet on and leaving them on when it moved slightly (with me supporting it so it wasn't so sudden). Still cautious, but now not jumping back as soon as there was motion.

So he's just going to take longer on this before we get to the Teeter, but the teeter should be a piece of cake afterwards. Says here.

NOSE TOUCH TO TARGET

I'm still working on that haphazardly, but he's moving to touch it in various offered places now. Not all the way to ground level yet, but the touch is getting more forceful and he's doing it to various flat objects, not just the clear plastic target. When I taught this to Remington--my first-ever clicker training assignment--he was doing a forceful nose touch & moving to the target within our first 5 minutes! Chip is not that dog.

FENCE BARKING

The dang dog next door likes to throw himself at the fence and make a ruckus. I've debated asking the neighbor whether we could just put in a gate and let the dogs play together, because it sure looks to me like your basic fence-fighting game: "Hold me back, hold me back!" but when you remove the fence, the dogs are best buds.

Anyway.

Tika occasionally gave in to temptation and returned the fence throwing/ferocious barking, but could be easily deterred.  Not Chip. I've tried chasing him away and saying No! and Cut it out! in various firm but not agitated ways. What I seemed to get was him checking to see whether I was around whenever he made a ruckus. If I just opened the back door, he'd come running, but if I didn't, or if we were already out in the yard, fageddaboudit.

I moved towards prevention rather than deterrence: If I were in the house (e.g., trying to work) and he started in at that, I just brought him inside and closed off the doggie door. Which is inconvenient for me and for the other dogs. And didn't solve the problem, just postponed it.

SOOO I reversed strategy, using his "checking in to see whether I was around" existing behavior with the Premack Principle.

• Wikipedia Pemack's Principle (more-probable behaviors reinforce less-probable behaviors)
• Video showing it used for--yes--fence fighting (more-probable is fence fighting; less-probable is coming away from the fence and paying more attention to me)

Results were very good after the first couple of sessions (while I was out doing yardwork or training or whatever in the yard). By the end of it, he'd hit the fence, bark a couple of times, and look at me, instead of staying there engaging in frantic almost-uninterruptable throwing/barking. OR, even better, look back at me as he approached the fence, hence was rewarded, so never even got there. Yeah! Don't know whether this will take care of what he might do while I'm not here.

But progress feels good.

SIT/DOWN STAY: Getting longer. Trying to work it with the hose spraying (just one squirt--he's staying in position more of the time now with that one squirt).

FIREWORKS

Why on earth the Idiots are setting them off when (a) it's illegal and (b) we're in the worst drought in recorded history and fire danger is extreme and it has been very hot lately. But, whatever. Ten days ago, found out that they Freak. Chip. Out.  Neighbors, many of whom are also upset (many with freaked-out dogs of whom one actually has seizures from the experience), think that it might be graduation parties. Yeah, best way to graduate: Break the law, terrify kids and dogs for miles around, and start a raging wildfire. Good.

Chip just stands rigidly, trying to figure out where the noise is coming from, jerking his head left and right. Tries hiding in one closet, tries hiding in the other closet, tries crawling under the bed, tries to crawl into the sink (?!!!!) and around and around. He'll settle a little bit if I let him hide under my bedcovers with me (I have never ever let dogs do that before), but even that lasts only a little while. Plus it's hot!  So some nights it has been tough for me to get to sleep.

He's the first of my 7 dogs to be this way.

Yesterday, my yard hit 104 F (40 C), and it was still over 90 when I left the house around 5:30 for the evening, so I did not open the upstairs bedroom windows at that time. When I got home at 11:30, all three dogs greeted me, but then Chip disappeared. I went upstairs to open the windows and turn on the fans, and he was hiding in the big closet, curled up in the bed that I put in there. Still pretty hot up there, but if he felt safe, OK...

I left him there for a bit until I heard him sort of coughing--like he had something in his throat. Went back upstairs, and he vomited a tiny bit (on the carpet, of course). I noticed then that there were several little vomit spots like that near and in the closet. The water bowl in the upstairs bedroom was empty, so I filled that and he immediately drank a ton of water but kept that little cough and a few more little vomits as I frantically tried to clean them up. Then one big gush and all the water he had drunk came out.

That's when it occurred to me that he was in the early stages of heat stroke. (You know, sometimes I'm not too quick on these things.) Went through various stages of me figuring out what to do. Immediately wet his stomach/groin area and ears (bare skin to be cooled by the fans) and paws. He started to settle. Let him drink more water--that was a mistake, as it again came back out a few minutes later. Then I moved him and the other dogs outside (where he didnt want to go), where it was noticeably cooler than upstairs. Kept the skin parts moist and waited to see whether the coughing stopped, which it did. Left the dogs outside for a bit while I did a cursory clean-up on the various vomit sites.

Came back downstairs to find him standing on the full-height counter outside the kitchen window. I have no idea how he got up there, except that he sure can jump.  Maybe there was a firework that I didn't hear and he wanted to get back in.

I then provided a bowl of water with ice cubes and let him drink a little at a time over about 10 minutes while I held a blue-ice pack on various parts of  his body; although he already felt much cooler than he had when I first held onto him, I wanted to be sure. Fortunately he likes to be held and touched.

When he got to where he didn't want to suck down tons of water, and there had been no more coughing or vomiting, we went back upstairs to bed and everything and everyone was fine.

At 2 in the morning.

Day Two of Useless Human Mom

SUMMARY: More agility dog abuse with friends.

This morning I could barely walk out to the yard with the dogs. Hobbled in from the parking lot at the agility trial site. Did a little bit of set-up at the score table and confirmed with one friend from yesterday that she'd be willing to try running Boost in Standard and Grand Prix.  I squeegeed off a table covered with morning dew--and realized that I suddenly felt much better. So I walked the Gambler's course, thinking that I'd run her, but just walking around the course a couple of times hurt enough that I changed my mind and enlisted the other friend from yesterday.

Sooooo Gamblers and Standard and Grand Prix went more or less like they had at the end of the day yesterday. Today, Boost was more interactive and happy and comfortable getting riled up by the friends before the runs, and she started out running with each of them, but did only about 5 or 6 obstacles before turning and fleeing for the ring exit. Funny, after one of those runs, after she reached me, she immediately turned around and started looking for the friend to see what she was doing. Dang dog. Too bad I can't be out in the ring, too. (Standing next to the ring didn't work any better.)

Our clearly stated goal was to try to give Boost more experience running with other people, and Qs jus didn't matter at that point, just to try getting her to run and keep her running. Better than yesterday, sure. But a long way to go!

Later in the day, the Snooker course had a ton of tunnels and an Aframe, and I've become SO tired of Snookers that consist pretty much entirely of jumps (with their associated risk of knocked bars), and I was so sad and frustrated earlier in the day that I wasn't able to run with my dog, that I decided to try running her in Snooker. It became apparent during the walkthrough that the Super-Qs would be decided by speed, because pretty much everyone (or a huge percentage thereof) would be doing three 7s in the opening.

I thought about scratching because I didn't want that much pressure, but decided to at least try it. Actually worked pretty nicely, and we got all the way halfway through 6 (out of 7) in the closing and I forgot to do a front cross, tried to rear cross a tunnel and pushed her off it. But I'm pretty sure that, even if we had finished, we'd have still lost the Super-Q on time; DANG there are some fast dogs out there! Still, it was nice, I was able to run some, she did good and kept her bars up. I did hurt a bit more while leaving the field, and I scratched her from the final run of the weekend (Jumpers) because she looked pretty tired when I pulled her out of the x-pen for Snooker.

Oh, right, she did get a Q in Snooker, but no Super-Q.

Chip did NOT stay in the x-pen today. I tried it three times and he was out in a matter of minutes, so he went back into the crate today. Today he did not want to play tug with me at all; I tried 3 or 4 times but my back hurt too much to keep at it, so I just did low-key things with treats.My

Not much else to tell; just how my friends are so accommodating and cheerful and willing to try things with my dog, and how helpful people are in keeping the trial running, and how many nice people asked me how I was doing (and i tried not to grumble about having a crappy back--at least "Back is not good, but the rest of me is pretty good").  Agility community is excellent.

My back doesn't seem to be any worse than it was before the weekend. Just on any given day it's likely to be particularly crappy.  But boy, I'm exhausted again. Off to bed even though it's early. The dogs have all been pretty quiet and sacked out, even though we didn't do much really during the day. Just being at a trial with all the stimulation I think can tire them out mentally. This is a good thing.

Operating in an Entirely Different Frame of Reference

SUMMARY: Just try to get Boost doing agility.

This was one of those weekends where it felt like I was back at square two, and mostly it was OK to be there if only my back/leg didn't hurt so much.

Here's how it went:

• Masters Standard (22" Championship): Knocked a bar early on. Ran past a jump midcourse. Wouldn't do the weaves. Just couldn't get her into them until after we'd been VERY eliminated on refusals. Then she did only a few and popped out, so we just left the ring. I tried very hard to be hearty and cheerful. But it hurt when I walked.
• Masters Gamblers (16" Performance): Got lucky with the opening-- a big straight curve with nuthin' but contacts and tunnels, so we went out and back. And luckily the tunnels were at the outer corners, because I could barely hobble my way through part of the course, and I was able to send her to the tunnels, which gave her momentum to do the contacts in just a lovely way.  Didn't expect to get the gamble and didn't, although our timing was good and we were right where I wanted to be when the buzzer went to start the gamble.
• Masters Snooker (22" Ch): Enlisted a friend with whom we do quite a bit of hiking (Carson's & Hiker's Human Mom) to try running Boost. She ran her in class a few weeks back and Boost looked pretty good then. Today, The Booster was having none of it. Sort of trotted alongside, staring up at her. No actual running from the dog. Trotted past the first jump, then took it. Trotted past the Aframe, then took it. Took the next jump, trotted past the Aframe, then took it. Repeat a 3rd time. So in 50 seconds she did 3 jumps and 3 Aframes. But at least she didn't try to leave the ring. (I hid beforehand so she didn't know where I was.)
• Masters Jumpers (22" Ch): Enlisted another friend with whom we've done a lot and who even dogsat Boost (Human Mom of Bump, Dig, and Styx). Last time she tried, Boost did a few jumps and then raced out to find me. Today the friend worked hard at getting Boost riled up and irritated with generous treats (because Boost wouldn't play with either friend at all), and Boost actually ran half the course--not full-speed, but running rather than trotting. Ran past one jump in there, but continued. Still, as soon as the course turned back towards the starting gate, she ran off and came looking for me.
• Steeplechase (16" Pf): 2nd friend also tried running Boost here, with about the same results as in Jumpers. It's progress, but still she won't do a whole course with someone else outside of class.
• Masters Pairs (16" Perf): I scoped out the easy half of the course and decided that I could get Boost through it even if I were hobbling, and my Pairs partner (who was also limping from a gimpy knee) was game to let me try. We ran second and other than turning the wrong way a couple of times, Boost did great, even did the weaves perfectly. Our partner Eed on refusals on the harder half of the course, but no worries--allowed me to relax on my second half, and it's not like we need Pairs Qs really. But at least we had one decent run. 

But I hurt.

I did take Chip out a couple of times for maybe 15-20 minutes each time and worked on having him look at me when I said his name, trying a little bit of circle work with limited success, worked on getting him to play tug with me and stay on the toy, with fairly decent success.  His nose touch to a target is improving fairly rapidly now that I've been working on it almost daily at least a little.  We worked on his revamped Down (going front-first down rather than sit first), and he's pretty good but I do have to signal it clearly, so we need to wean off that. Practiced the down-stay and the sit-stay with fairly decent results (still not taking my eyes off of him, not getting farther away than I can catch him if he starts to get up). Let him hang out under the score table with me for a while (getting treats for paying attention and also scritches and affection) and he behaved very well.

I even risked putting him in the low x-pen with Boost for the last hour or so of the day (since he was starting to make a mess of Tika's soft crate, and it's the only good one that I have left plus the only teal/purple one left in the world) and he actually stayed in, even when Boost and Tika were away! (I hadn't really thought that he would.)

Tika got to come out with me a couple of times, too. Did some tricks, some exercises to strengthen her back legs, back, and core muscles, and then just hung around the score table getting treats and scritchies. Her cough wasn't too bad today but did show up from time to time. She did sort of perk up and trotted briefly after a frisbee a couple of times, but no actual running. Sigh. Old dogs.

If I hadn't been in pain most of the time, it wouldn't have seemed like too bad a day. Weather was sunnyish, downright balmy with a cooling breeze. Grass surface was lovely. Friends were sympathetic and helpful. Score table work went well. 

I took no photos, perhaps needless to say, as I just didn't want to move around that much.

Will try again tomorrow. Playing it by ear--or by back, I guess.

We're Still Here

SUMMARY: So little time--

... And then Boost was sick for a few days, and then I was sick for more than a week, and then my back went out and then I had a big deadline at work and was putting in quite a few more hours than usual...

And here we are, looking at a weekend of USDAA agility in Palo Alto, and neither Boost nor I have done anything worth mentioning in a month. And my back is still a mess.

A friend who has run her in class might try running her this weekend if I think that I can't.

Chip is basically a good boy but loves to bark back at the neighbor's dog who throws himself at the fence and barks off an on most of the day. I tolerated that, mostly, although it got tedious, before Chip came along. Now I have to close him in the house when I'm here so that I can say that I'm at least making an attempt to keep him away.

His nose touch to a target is slowly getting better, about as fast as I'm working on it.  Have done just a little tiny bit of trying to get him to back up or to stretch on command or to Shake.

Working on "come" a bit. Not enough. Sit and down stays are longer but I don't work on those enough, either.

Have bailed on my regular Thursday night class with Boost because I've been making it only about once a month for one reason or another. Might try to get into some basic foundation/groundwork/whatever class with Chip to motivate me a little more.

Tika's back legs are getting pretty weak, and *that's* really where I regret not doing more all the time. We should be walking and doing her exercises every day, but often I just can't. Or I'm not here.

Not much to say, really, which is why I haven't said it.

Carmel

SUMMARY: Memorial, beach, friends.

(Reposted with a bit more stuff than earlier. 8:45pm PDT)

My random notes about today.

========

A good day. Memorial for Lisa Pomerance on the Carmel beach with dogs and friends. She was so involved with so many animal communities. Much purple was worn. My dogs ran on the beach before and after, and walked around Carmel with friends afterwards. And I took no photos. Not one. It was a wonderful day.

Me, in my purple (after getting home), windblown, with purple beads from the memorial

========

In Carmel today, one random person asked what kind of animal Chip was. My friend answered, "dog". He seemed disbelieving. Another said that Tika was clearly not all dog. I said that she was an Aussie mix, probably with Husky. He said, "Oh," and looked at her critically. Not sure he was convinced, either.

"What kind of animal?" I'm still floored by that one.

=========

The memorial was nice. Quite a few people wore purple and quite a few brought their dogs. People just got up and talked about how they'd met her, the fun times they had, the things she was involved in, and so on.

I took all 3 dogs and they got quite a bit of off-leash beach time. I wasn't sure what would happen with Chip with no recall, and he did tend to go farther away then either of the other dogs would, but he'd eventually come running back, so I guess he's attached enough to us now.

I got there with 2 cameras and realized that (a) I wasn't in the mood for taking photos and (b) it would be too hard trying to keep track of 3 dogs with a wide range of interests as well as concentrate on photos. So I took not a single shot. Fortunately I went with 2 friends with cameras so I'm hoping for lots of beach shots, maybe even with me in some for a change.

========

The memorial--people brought their own chairs--was on the beach in the indentation where, in this Google Maps shot, there's a volleyball net (above-left of the letter B). The wind was fierce and became fiercer; it whipped away many of the words that people spoke; by late afternoon, the wind had blown away all but a few hardy souls from the normally crowded beach despite the sunshine.

========
Fitbit says I walked:

Doesn't this mean that the dogs walked/ran about twice that while off leash?

========

Shouldn't they all be sacked out after that? *I'm* sure tired.

BUT when I tried to take Boost's sacked-out photo, she jumped up, figuring that if I'm not at my computer, it's time to play. Now she and Chip are chewing on bones, playing with toys, and generally not being exhausted. That's the problem with having a  90-minute drive home afterwards: They can sleep all the way, but I can't sleep more than occasionally while actually driving.

Tika animated

SUMMARY: Fun with animated GIFs

I've been wanting to do this with these photos for a year and a half. It's not as smooth as I had envisioned, but still kinda cool.

Now that I know how easy this is, I'll have to work at taking more sequences with animated gifs specifically in mind.

Animated GIF

SUMMARY: testing

Hot May Day

SUMMARY: Some dogs like the hose.

Who's all wet?

OK, we done water. Now we do ball? Dat ball right dere?

(Never take photos of your dogs with their faces really close to the lens unless you want them to look all misproportioned. Sorry, Boost!)

Ewwwww, me all wet!

High Tech Cleverness Wins the Day

SUMMARY: Finding FitBit.

(oops forgot to post this. Posting on May 2, backdated for correct date.)

Monday morning:
Thought that I'd lost my FitBit; disappeared sometime while I was doing errands and things Sunday afternoon, but didn't notice that I wasn't wearing it until late in the afternoon after I'd been doing yardwork. Couldn't find it anywhere. It just occurred to me, almost a day later: If it's within 50 feet of my computer, it would be automatically syncing. And, sure enough, it last synched about 8 minutes ago. And the last activity was actually not long before I discovered that it was missing. Means it is SOMEwhere here. That doesn't preclude being in the house, car, or yard, but at least it's not in, say, the Home Depot parking lot.


Tuesday evening:
I looked everywhere that I could think of (at least it made me put some things away), and no find-um. I double-checked the auto-sync feature and it says it has to be within 15 feet, not 50! So I actually measured 15 feet in various directions with a tape measure--which still encompassed the whole office, part of the garage and car, part of the yard, the dinette, and parts of the upstairs-- and looked again. STILL no findee. In despair (after an unpleasant day, medically, shall we say I'm hungry but dare not eat), yes in despair I went to google and typed WHERE IS MY FITBIT? Lo and behold, a fitbit page popped up with that title, and one of the suggestions was to set the silent alarm and see whether I could hear its vibrations. Bingo! In a place I hadn't looked because I didn't even remember being there--behind a box of papers next to the file cabinet. Good thing, because the battery was almost gone. Now Mr. Fitbit is cheerfully recharging.

Water Intoxication Can Kill Your Dog

SUMMARY: Some reading for every dog owner.

After Kinetic's death this week--second young dog in our club over the past few years to die from water toxicity--it's good to be reminded of the dangers of water:

• Water Intoxication: Too Much of a Good Thing
• Water Toxicity or Hyponatremia in Dogs = Water playtime can be deadly!

And, incidentally, too much water can make humans very sick, too.

• An agility judge's story part 1: Heat stroke?
• Part 2: Probably water intoxication

Heavy Heart

SUMMARY: This month has been rough on our local agility community.

Updated April 25: Links at end.

One of the things about knowing people in the agility community is that they are so active, mentally and physically, and young enough to be active and healthy, that we seldom lose anyone. Maybe every 2 or 3 years to cancer, say.

But now--

A month ago, Katy Silverman died suddenly "after a short illness." I knew her only from watching her run her dog Bindi occasionally at CPE trials, but she was young and healthy and several years younger than I am. Her obituary.

Three weeks ago, another local, Marge Ryder, died suddenly--not someone I knew but plenty of my agility friends did, and some friends have pups related to her dog Kefi.

Last week, Lisa Pomerance--also several years younger than I am--gone.

And now a dog-- found out just an hour ago--  One of the other things about knowing so many people in the agility community is that I also know so many dogs. And dogs get old so much quicker than people, and they die, and I grieve their passing. But this:

 Kinetic. Three and a half. Gone yesterday in little more than a blink of an eye from water intoxication. Her Human Mom, Susan, has been involved in the dog world and agility for many years but I've never seen her love a dog as much as she loved Kinetic. She's called Kinetic her heart dog, and it was so obviously right between them. They're another pair that go almost everywhere together.

They love hiking together--and I've been on so many hikes with them, and that little Pap can hike 10 miles with the best of them, never being carried. They could definitely hike faster than I could.


They love doing agility--she had world-team aspirations (they'd have been on their way to the AKC team try-outs next week), and this dog could do it. Just watching them stream around a course as fast as or faster than any of the border collies, both so graceful and focused and damned fast, was an experience that drew applause and cheers from the audience.

And Kinetic had a hundred aunts and uncles at agility trials or wherever else they went. You could pick Kinetic out of the crowd with her always-colorful plume of a tail.

I'm heartbroken all over again.

***  Read this about the dangers of water ***

*** Another tribute to Kinetic ***

A Little Hiking

SUMMARY: At Santa Teresa Park.

Took Chip on his first hike at Santa Teresa. We haven't been there in far too long. Finally, the rain that came in late March made the hills green and now the grasses and wildflowers are up.

x

A success--Chip actually sat and waited while I took a couple of photos! Well--had to resit him once. And I did make the shots hurried so that it would be a dog-sit success.

In the first half of the hike, we saw mostly the yellow mustard. On the second half--and I didn't have my flower-shooting camera with me--I spottted Itherial's Spear, Blue Dicks, Fiddlenecks, Blue-Eyed Grass, tons of poppies, some kind of Vetch, and random others. (No photos of any of them, but here's a pretty field.)

I wasn't sure how much hiking Tika could do, but she managed a fairly steady if slowish pace, and we did about two and a half miles, including two long gradual uphills and a couple of steep downhills, in about 90 minutes. A slow pace for a moderate hike, but not bad for the old girl.

Managing three dogs is challenging!  We saw only one other dog jogging by with his human (chip wanted to bark wildly, and I didn't see them in time to quell it in advance), a couple of other joggers, and a dozen bikes or so. Chip wanted to bark at them, too, but I talked him through it and gave him treats for looking at me.

Tika thought it was a good workout but the younger dogs barely even counted it as exercise.  But it was nice to be out and about.

Clicker training

SUMMARY: Nose touch and stuff.

OK! One more concentrated evening of practicing, several sets of several repetitions, and he's started pressing his nose to the middle of the clear plastic target fairly reliably--pretty much around the 80% success rate where I can start adding the verbal "touch", I think--he's still a bit wobbly on the idea if I move it too far from him, but I think we're in a good place. (I'll have to think some more about that--he's still deliberate about it rather than excited... maybe I should wait until I can find how to get him excited about it. ... Garden hose reward? Hmmm. Like where the other dogs push hard to get to the target to get the reward.)

Last night he also got to practice lying down and staying in one place while I worked with the other dogs, cuz that's what we do--only one dog works with me and clicker at a time. I had to replace him multiple times, but he actually stayed down for longer and longer durations, getting rewards for it.

He hated it when I was free-shaping Boost, though, when Boost started barking. Freaked him out for some reason, tail down and everything. Will have to pay attention to that, too.

With Boost & Tika, decided to try doing some free shaping to see what they'd do with a cushion, since I tend to do the same things with them. Well, that was challenging--they both stare at me intensely while doing things with their bodies and feet on the cushion, but never lowering their heads or turning their heads away from me. Clearly I need to do more of that sort of stuff again; time was when either of them would quickly get around to grabbing it or nudging it.

Clicker training can be SO much fun and sometimes I just forget that.

Chipper Pix

SUMMARY: A friend took several photos of Chip this past weekend.

At the Trial Sunday

SUMMARY: Not much to say.

Wasn't in quite as much pain today as yesterday.

A good night's sleep helped--thanks to some tough love on Human Mom's part.

When the dogs ask to go out in the night, I usually know that they mean it, and I let them out, they do whatever they need to do, and then they come back in. (For Tika, that's almost never unless something's amiss; for Boost it's more likely when she's on prednisone.) The last 2 or 3 times of the dozen times that Boost said that she HAD to go out on Friday night, I finally went out onto the porch to see what she was doing, because that was excessive even for pred.

Sure enough, she made a beeline from the porch to the back hedge and buried the whole front of her body underneath and stood there, rustling around a little but essentially in one place. What the...?

I called her out, a big miffed, but she did not COME out! My good little obedient dog! I went over and pulled her out, with her resisting mightily. Didn't look like she was eating anything. Dark out there and I couldn't easily see what was so fascinating.  I chased her away from it repeatedly and gave her her Hurry Up and pee command, which she finally did, then dove under the hedge 30 feet away and made her way back to the same spot by going along behind the hedge.

So, last night, after I'd been asleep less than an hour and Boost said that she HAD to go out, I took her out on a leash. Sure enough, she wanted to go to the hedge. I didn't let her; instead, I walked her in circles telling her (in a bit of an annoyed voice) to Hurry Up. She looked at me like I was nuts and kept trying to head back to the shrub. I just kept saying No!  Finally she peed a little tiny bit, I said she was good, and took her back inside.

Then apparently she realized that Human Mom was not going to let her do that any more, and we slept through the night. I have not yet gone out to try to see what was under the hedge.

-------------
Chip is, I think, getting the nose-touch-to-target thing even though I'm doing it casually. Yay.

He didn't make nearly as much fuss when I took Boost out and left him in his crate has he did 2 weeks ago, in fact today almost none at all.

He was pretty good as I walked him around, letting him sniff and roll on the grass, and giving him hot dogs when he looked at me or turned back to me. Even played tug with me on his tug-leash when I made an effort to be very exciting and run back and forth, so he was less distracted today than he has been. He still walks by dozens of dogs just looking or whimpering, then suddenly ferocious barking at the end of the leash. Always a challenge of some sort.

Today he rejected a chunk of fried potato (like hash brown/country fried) as not being actual food, but decided that bacon counted as food without having to think about it at all. You can be assured that he did not get much bacon, because it was MY bacon, nom nom nom!

------------
Tika's idea of staying in her crate.

(Sometimes she can unzip it partway or all the way. I came back from one of Boost's runs and noticed that Tika's crate was empty. She had wandered off in search of the food she'd been getting at the score table.)


-----------
What Boost won this weekend. She's such a good raffle girl.

She also made the weave entry correctly ONCE today. The other times, like yesterday, went in at the 2nd pole or ran past them.

Today i just concentrated on keeping her running, didn't care whether we want past jumps or anything. Her contacts are still good, her sends to tunnels of course are lovely. In Snooker, a bar down and refusal on the weaves in the closing, so not even a regular Q, let alone SuperQ.

Other 4 classes ranged from mostly lovely and fun to "please take an obstacle, ANY obstacle, I don't care!"

Ah, well, we're all here together and having a good time.

Lisa's Remington

SUMMARY: Well-taken care of.

I just saw this, posted on FB by the late Lisa's friend Mitzi:

As all of my agility friends know, we lost one of my best agility buddies yesterday. Lisa Pomerance was not only an agility friend, but a true friend in every way. I have shed many many tears, and I will continue to mourn the loss of my dear friend. Lisa had always said to me, if I die you have to take care of Remington for me.

I struggled yesterday trying to figure out what was best for him. Since [my current dog] and Remington are both "high needs" dogs, and I am getting a puppy in a few weeks, I knew I would not be the best choice. I have found him a loving home with my friend [name] who will treat Remington with the love and "cushy" life he is so accustomed to. I will also get to see my little Buddy Remington all the time!!! Thank you [Lisa's sister?] for allowing me to give Remington the life Lisa would have wanted for him.

Rest In Peace my beautiful friend Lisa, I will always love you, and I will always watch over Remington!

UPDATE April 20:

Lisa collected hedgehog toys and accessories for Remington (I didn't know this until yesterday), so a friend suggested that we post hedgehog photos in our Facebook profiles in her memory. Here's mine--some of Jake's leftover favorite nubbie squeakies.

Can I get a do-over starting last night?

SUMMARY: Not the best 24 hours.

My back has been acting up this week. Loading the van last night, I'm sure, didn't help--lifted in the big x-pen because I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to crate out of the car. And just picking up my folding chair, a gallon of water for the dogs, etc., each one hurt. Feels like something's being pinched again.

Did get to bed fairly eary, 9ish--because I hurt too much to want to do anything else. Boost, on that prednisone, wanted to go out all night on average about every 50 minutes. I did not get much sleep. Alarm was set for 5:00. To top off a splendid night, Chip threw up on the carpet at about 4:40, so I had to clean that up (time consuming).

My leg cramped up Thursday night during the night, and today my calf muscle is stiff, tight, and painful. Between my back and that, walking around was uncomfortable all day today. And I'm going to go do it again tomorrow.

Did spend a little time with Chip and handfuls of hotdog scraps, rewarding every time he looked at me while walking around on leash, doing more target nose touches. He was perfectly good most of the time but about 3 times he went into intense barking/alert mode at the end of the leash at other dogs. Maybe they looked him straght in the eye? He jumped a little when we were at the score table each time the automated timeer said Go! or buzzed, but stayed where he was and didn't panic about it. Lots more people met him and said that he's cute and that he reminds them of Remington.

Did spend some time with Tika just walking around, doing some tricks for treats, hanging out at the score table. I really need to spend more time trying to strengthen her back side again.

Boost didn't get a single weave entry all day and took more than 2 attempts to get it right most times. Not videoed, but I'm sure that I gave her plenty of space. Still, her contacts were all excellent for a change.

Jumpers was very nice, but a bar when I called hard as she was over the jump, and I think that discombobulated her and she missed a jump and it took me a bit to get her to think about doing obstacles again instead of bouncing around in front of me.

Gamblers was good, early thing in the morning, she was very fast, only flaw was that she just ran past th weaves entirely (I didn't go back to fix them, to preserve my carefully timed plan). That was our only Q of 6 runs.

Standard was pretty darned good until the next to the last obstacle--the weaves. Bah.

Pairs, she ran past jump on a lateral lead-out, so wasted time getting back to where we needed to be, and then the danged weave entry. We didn't Q but our partner was good (well, a missed contact). Considering that we combined for I think 15 faults, we were only about a second over time, so they were fast.

Snooker, the wheels fell off (that's right after I found out about Lisa, but I don't think that was really the issue).

Steeplechase the wheels, the chassis, the doors, and the engine fell off. She was behaving oddly beforehand, not focusing on me, grabbing the tug but immediately releasing it, like that. I wonder whether she's sore or needs an adjustment? Wish she could talk.

Trying to remember the positives. The outpouring of offers when I asked my agility club whether someone had a wire crate I could borrow--and I picked one of them up today at the trial.

Weather cooperated--sunny but a chilly breeze to keep us from overheating.

Boost does love doing tunnels full-speed-ahead.

Good friends, good dogs.

Tired, sore, hoping I'll get some sleep tonight. G'night.

A sad Saturday

SUMMARY: R.I.P. Lisa P.

One of our agility friends signed up for this weekend. Posted on facebook that she'd be there today. Checked out the field ahead of time to be sure that the nasty burr-weeds wouldn't be there to hurt her Papillon, Remington's, feet and posted about that.

August 2013

She didn't show up this morning. One of her friends became concerned when she couldn't get in touch with Lisa, and left the trial to go all the way out to her house to check on her.

All I know at this point is that Lisa passed away sometime after Thursday night and it's a good thing that the friend went to check on her. What a shock it must be to be the first to find your friend.

I didn't know her well, but talked to her at almost every trial. We originally started talking because we shared a common love for our Remington dogs, even though mine has been gone 11 years now. Then we kept talking because she was taking a larger interest in photography, so we talked about that quite a bit and I helped her figure out things on her camera. Plus she was a friendly, cheerful, sociable person and lots of folks knew Remington from trials and from his own Facebook posts. She loved that little guy like crazy and took him everywhere with her.

How suddenly things change.

It's hard to believe.

This was in a batch that Lisa sent to me
in January.
Don't know who photographer is.

Just Stuff

SUMMARY: Agility weekend coming, misc things.

I've got so much going on lately (hmm, as always), that the last few days I haven't done a lot of focused training.

With Chip, got him easily onto a low, slightly wobbly agility table to play tug. Didn't want to tug much at first or stay on very long, but it took only a few minutes to be playing good tug while I walked all around the table, him moving with me.

Nose touch to a target, still doing half a dozen times at random times through the day; think I need another concerted several minutes with hot dog bits--sometimes he ignores it, sometimes he's planting his nose solidly in the middle. Can't tell whether he's really getting it or not.

Tika has given Chip the play bow a couple of times but he avoided her and headed for Boost. Silly dogs--because he's been mooning around Tika, nudging her ear, giving *her* the play bow and all that and she's ignored him.

Tika still sometimes gives him the raised lips with sharp pointy teeth and a little snarl, can't figure out exactly when or what, but I think it has to do with being next to me, dangit.

In class last night, Boost and I had sections of excellence but also knocked bars and incapacity to get weave entries. Weaves are still mainly the only thing I practice with her in the yard these days, and she seems to be getting worse, not better. (Not that I'm practicing all that much, maybe several entries a couple of times a week.)

And we have agility this weekend. Not too far away, so I'm hoping I'll be home for dinner both days.

Boost is now in Performance 3 in everything except Jumpers and Snooker. That means she's jumping 16" instead of 22" in P3. That's what we did last weekend, too.

Don't really have all that much to report in on.

Have a good weekend y'all.

Chip Day 19 - Vet, Dogpark, and Other Random Stuff

SUMMARY: A few little notes.

Chip met our vet today. He cheerfully greeted the receptionist and got a treat. He slightly cautiously greeted the vet but accepted pets and a treat. He was completely calm through the entire exam, except that he didn't like being turned around on the metal table, but got over it.

Vet said that I should have him do a mind meld with Tika to try to get her to absorb some of his calmness.  My fear is that it would be the other way around and Chip would turn into a frantic screamer, too.

Chip checks out excellent. Joints seem solid, weight is good (33 lbs as Previous Owner said), heart rate is that of a runner (nice and low and even), rear is well-muscled.  A little tartar on his molars just on the right side--does he chew only on one side, maybe?  Eyes are a little red-- Boost's were awful a couple of weeks ago, very red and discharging, one of her allergy things that crops up, and she got a week's dose of eye ointment. Vet says Chip's aren't bad, just typical "hay fever eyes" and to keep an eye on them.

Other notes:

• He doesn't know how to follow a pointing finger (as in, there's food THERE on the floor for you, or get THAT toy). He'll learn, I assume; most dogs do.
• Happened to be near a dog park, so took him there because I saw (when I first met him) how he liked playing with other dogs at a dogpark. Thought I'd use it as a teaching/learning experience (for both of us). The yummy treats I took, however, he spit out the first several rewards I tried to give, so that didn't help. Mostly my goals were to (a) see whether he'd pay attention when I said his name (he didn't), (b) see whether he'd come in my direction when I tried various attractive activities (he didn't), (c) see whether he'd miss me and Boost when we hid behind the fence on the far side of the field for several minutes (he didn't), (d) get him used to the idea that I can grab his collar, reward/pet/praise and release, and that would make him more amenable to me coming up to him to grab his collar (he didn't, not really... I followed him around the park until he'd stop to smell something long enough for me to get close to lean and put my hand on his collar, probably a couple dozen times, but every succeeding time he'd trot ahead of me just out of my reach until he felt like stopping).  And he spent most of his time sniffing EVERYthing, very little time paying any attention to other dogs.
• The wall of the building that forms part of the dogpark boundary has realistic pictures of dogs painted on it. He spent about 3 minutes barking ferociously at them, ignoring/moving away from me, before he somehow decided that they were not actually dogs.
• I'm very happy at how well he's sitting and waiting for his dinner, and waiting to be released out of his crate.
• I seem to be sleeping with 3 dogs on the bed now. How DOES that happen? As long as (1) they don't try to take my space and (2) Chip doesn't make Tika feel pushed out, that's fine. Everyone seems to be getting along.
• Tunnels--he has run through U-curved tunnels after Boost several times in the yard now. I set up a wobble board and a low table yesterday but ran out of time to try them out on him. 
• I should take some quick vids of him doing various things.  Yeah, right, like I'm going to. But I should.

Things I still need from Previous Owner:

• Info on his microchip registration.
• Info on his license expiration.
• Info on previous vet and innoculation history.
• Whether he's ever had heartworm medication.
• Confirmation on his birthdate--have it but the comment was "pretty sure". Not that it really matters exactly, since Tika's, Remington's, Sheba's, and Jake's bdays were all best guesses. But I'd just like to know for health reasons and for personal knowledge if the info is available.
• When and whether they're going to get together with Chip for a goodbye afternoon/day/weekend/week. I think Chip would love to see them from time to time over time, if they're willing. Waiting to hear.

Meanwhile Back at Taj MuttHall

SUMMARY: Boost and Tika

Still trying to figure out Boost and food and her weight.

She's also getting MUCh worse about scrounging stuff. I have all these varieties of dog foods to keep Tika's interest up, and a lot of the unopened ones (or sealed shut) are on the floor. This has never been a problem. But yesterday she ripped open one of the brand-new, still sealed bags and I caught her gorging herself! Yikes. Is nothing sacred?

She is now the fastest eater i the house. After all those years of Tika sucking down her own food at twice Boost's speed, now that Tika is slow and methodical... and Chip is even slower than that!... I wonder whether Boost thinks that she's getting less food than they're getting?

She also now knows that Tika doesn't always finish her meal and lurks to dive in the instant that Tika's head moves away, and I have to catch her and drag her back from that, so maybe she feels deprived fromnot getting to eat that?

It's a puzzlement, why packages of treats and food are no longer OK around the good border collie after all these years.

A couple of people suggested adding pumpkin, in the ratio of twice whatever kibble I was taking out of her diet.  I bought several cans, and what I'm doing is smearing it all around the inside of her dish and pouring the food onto it, so she has to spend time licking out every molecule, giving the other dogs time to finish eating.

Tika is mostly eating most of her meals, with only occasional meals where she won't eat the first thing that I set out for her.

I'll tell ya what's working with having Chip here, apparently: Before, she was consuming her pill pockets (containing meds) cautiously and fairly often spitting them out and refusing to eat them until I remove the pills. Since Chip has arrived, wow, does she suck down those 2 pill pockets! Doesn't want a chance for the usurper to get one, I guess.

After several days of Tika doing a lot of coughing and acting old and frail, she's back to very little coughing, more enthused play, more alertness. This cycle keeps going over and over and over.

Boost is scratching obsessively still/yet/again, after a couple of weeks off prednisone. I *SO* hate having her on pred all the time, but milder things don't work, and she's now chewing herself raw, which I really hate to see and isn't good for her, either. So I guess it's back on prednisone again. Sigh.

And that's the news from Lake Dogbegone, where all the dogs are cute AND above average.

Chip Training 3

SUMMARY: More random notes from the last few days.

• Bedtime: The dogs seem to be working things out overnight. I do tell him to get off the bed if one of my dogs is looking displaced, but often I wake up with 3 dogs on the bed. So much for that.
• Nose touch: Have been doing a few click-treats randomly here and there, but put some effort into it this evening. He's catching on--going back and forth from a light touch at the edge to a solid touch in the middle, then sitting abruptly and scratching (stress behavior, natural as he figures out clicker training and how to figure out how to figure out what I want!). He's so circumspect about it, though, and he also chews the tiny Zuke halves each time, so it takes a bit. Need to cut up more hot dogs so as to work it a little faster.
• Lawn mower: I'm guessing that he's never encountered a reel push-mower before. First he was concerned about it, then cautiously inspected it while I held it still for him, then wanted to bark at it, which I discouraged each time he started. By the end of the lawn mowing, he was watching but not barking. Don't know whether that'll last.
• Barking: He is very vocal. I'm afraid that he's spending a lot of time in the yard, barking, when I'm gone. As soon as I hear him when I'm here, I open the door and tell him no barking, and then he runs happily into the house (I'm not calling him; he just does that). Must be careful that I'm not teaching him that i pay attention to him when he barks, bah, don't want him using that against me! This afternoon it looked like he was checking to see whether I was looking after he barked. Hm.
• Sit-stay, down-stay: I'm practicing these at random times while playing or doing other stuff. He's pretty good now at waiting for my release to get his meal after sitting. Duration is getting better already.
• Agility obstacles: Have gotten him to run through a full-length curved tunnel two or three times, chasing after Boost. After that, he trotted back and forth through it on his own, then around the outside, then back through, as if he were trying to figure out how it transported him from one place in the yard to another place with a different orientation (because it's curved). Pretty cute.  Also am getting him to go over a very low jump by tossing a toy, and he's just fine with that. Still hampered by not being able to line him up using his collar.
• Collar grab/leading him by collar: Spent a bunch of time the last couple of days doing more desensitization of those things in various ways, just trying to get him to not dodge away when I reach for him, and to move forward happily with my hand putting pressure with his collar. I think we're making progress.
• Recall: Haven't worked on that a lot specifically. Tried again at the big schoolyard with him loose on a long line; he does run after Boost a few times as she chases the frisbee, but too many other interesting things for him to come back every time. Sorry to say that I lost control of him twice--once I was standing on the line when two tween-aged girls came running by, and he ran straight at them, barking, and somehow the line pulled out from under my feet (it has a thing at the end to keep it from sliding through, but it must have pulled sideways). They stopped running immediately and he just wanted to check them out. I apologized, said it was a new dog that I was fostering and was still figuring him out, and they said they completely understood because they had done some fostering of dogs. Whew!  The second time I thought he was coming to me, then suddenly took off alllll the way across the huge field towards the blacktop area, barking ferociously--there were skateboarders on the far side of the blacktop, so far away that I hadn't even noticed them, but he did.  Fortunately he stopped at the edge of the blacktop and just stood there barking, so I could collect him.  I need to work on his recall, but so many things to work on!
• Snuggling: He seems to like snuggling. Did I say that already? he does this funny cute thing with his head upside-down.
• Playing: Today is the first day that I didn't see him and Boost playing and wrestling together--I was gone part of the day, but I also think that Boost might be having enough of it--she *is* 9, and I wonder whether she gets a little sore from that. 
• It's been three days since my last post, so I'm sure we've done more than this. Will add more if I think of anything later.

Chip Training 2

SUMMARY: New dog, so many things.

• Toenail clipping: He had no problem with the plain clippers clipping off long chunks from the ends of his toenails. They are pretty long. I use a dremel from there, both to dull the sharp corners on the nails and to make it easier to get closer to the quick without actually  hitting it. The dremel fascinated him while I was using it on the other dogs; he kept wanting to put his nose right up to it. But as soon as I turned it on while holding his foot, he'd have nothing to do with that. So I spent some time with treats, just turning the dremel on and off, desensitizing him to the sound and the on/off, much like I did with the dog door flapping. This could be a long process in small steps--e.g., then hold his foot and turn it on/off, hold his foot & bring it closer, actually touch it to his toenail (vibration could feel funny).
• Grabbing collar: When I reach towards him to grab his collar past his face, he often shies away. I want him to love having me grab his collar, so I'm working on desensitizing that with treats and loving (for example, grab collar, let go of it to pet him and praise him while giving a treat, and other variations).
• Manipulating using collar: When I try to pull him forward on leash or by hand in his collar in certain situations--e.g., standing next to him and trying to get him to take a step forward--he digs in. I want him to love being directed by his collar. So working on desensitizing that in similar and various ways, e.g., hand in collar, very slight pressure and drop or hold a tasty treat slightly in front of him; release pressure as soon as he moves, and reward.
• Fetch: In the house, he's bringing the toy back more and more often. Outside, meh, maybe or maybe not. I haven't spent a lot of time working on that; most progress I think comes from (a) not chasing him to get it and (b) playing with him with the toy when he brings it. Need to do more specific work on that.
• Sit-stay. Is staying a little longer, in the house, as I move a little bit around him. Need lots and lots of work on that--for any dog, that takes a long time of building duration and ignoring distractions. Having to sit and wait for his dinner until I release him is also helping.
• Down-stay. Holding my fist on the ground in front of  him with a treat is getting him more and more quickly to lie down front first, which is a great start. 
• Bedtime: Last Thursday night, I left his x-pen open after putting him in to see how the night would go. Tika typically gets off and on the bed a couple of times during the night, but usually starts and ends there. When I woke up in the morning, she was on the floor and he was on the bed and she was back to giving little snarls at him. My dogs normally defer to other dogs, don't want a fight (Chip seems to be the same way, fortunately), so if he went onto the bed while she was on the floor, she wouldn't have tried to get back up but might be unhappy about it. I want her to feel secure in her place, so Friday, Sunday, and Monday, he was back in the xpen with the door closed. Tues and last night I left the door open again, and he seemed to keep off my bed; found my extra dog bed in the closet and slept on that. So I think things are OK like that.
• Little dogs: He's loving playing with the local chihuahua mixes when he gets a chance and they seem to love him. So cute, all of them!
• "Give" toy: Either he's a very quick learner or he already knew this from his previous home. He might think about it for a moment, but then hands it over.

So, let's see, priorities (not in specific order, but things I want to remember to focus on, with maybe a few minutes each day):

• Try teaching a couple or 3 cute tricks, definitely including nose touch to a target. Maybe also "shake" and hold a biscuit on his nose? This is one of the main things that I need to know about him--how quickly does he learn when not having to be desensitized about something first?
• Desensitize reaching for collar and being pulled by collar.
• Sit-stay for a little longer duration.
• Fetch more reliably.
• Recall ("come").
• Basic flatwork (following me closely as I walk/trot/run in a circle or various directions), but that will be challenging until he's desensitized to pulling on his collar.
• Basic going between jump uprights and over a jump of slowly increasing height--also might be difficult if I can't guide him with the leash. Goal is to set up a simple jump chute (jumps in a line with barrier on each side) to try to get him moving quickly through it. Normally I'd take a lot more time and approach things in a different way, but I really want to see how he looks when jumping over jumps. If I can achieve that in the next 2 weeks, that's  the other main thing that I need to know about him.

Chip Training 1

SUMMARY: Sit/stay, come, fetch, release, name.

I was SO tired and sore yesterday after the weekend--what has become of me?--that I wasn't up to training. So we took the day off, rested, and played a bit in the yard.

Today I worked a bit with Chip on a very few things for a total of maybe 15 minutes scattered through the day:

• Release word: I'm using Break, which is what I use for Boost, which is confusing her--when I release him, she also releases. I apparently didn't make the connection for her early on that I need to be addressing her directly for it to apply to her.
• Recall (Come): Using suggestions in Mandy Book's book Quick Clicks to get him wanting to come to me as I have treats. Started with him a foot or so away, show the treat, then wait for him to come get it; click & treat. Repeat a few times. Then stand back another foot or so, repeat a few times. Then put a treat on the floor in front of him, step away about 3 or 4 feet, and click/treat as soon as he turns his head to see where I am, click. Treat when he comes to me. He seemed to like that, although he would periodically get stuck staring and me, wondering what I wanted (so I was moving too quickly along the progression). No command yet.
• Sit/stay: Goal is that "Sit" means "sit until I give you the release word." Using a "forced sit"--hold collar and press on that part of his hips so that he has to sit (without pushing hard in the wrong place, which could hurt or make him resist), along with the Sit command. Step slightly away, praise & treat, step back next to him, praise and treat, release. He actually let me walk all the way around him without him getting up (in the kitchen), progressing quickly within just a very few minutes.
• Fetch: He seems to be bringing the toy voluntarily more and more often, as he realizes that (a) there's no keep-away going to happen and (b) if he brings it, I play with him, which has to be more fun than playing by himself or just standing there waiting for something to happen. I think I might up the ante by click/treat as he makes any move towards me and see whether I can speed this up.
• Respond to name: At random times on today's walk and while in low-stimulation situations here at home, I say his name and reward when he looks at me. He's doing that pretty well, but that's with no distractions whatsoever.

He does like to play tug and is getting more enthused and sure of himself all the time. I'm starting to add a little body/head/face patting as we play--I want him to keep playing and being intense even if there are distractions on his body. This would be helpful for things like weave poles--if he doesn't care that he's up against them with his face, that would be very good. 

Trying to give the other dogs equal time for treats and praise, but am mostly just repeating old tricks rather than trying to increase their repertoire--I'm just not having the energy at the moment to think through things for 3 dogs at a time! But they seem happy.